WESTMINSTER
590
WESTMINSTER
oven aftor (lir Reformation it lingerofl on in a modifiod
form until finally abolished by King James I. The
greater part of the old monastie buildings are now
used as a public school. As was usual in all the
larger monasteries, there had always been a school in
the monastic cloister, the minute regulations for
which may be found carefully detailed in Abbot
Ware's "Customary". To replace this, at the Ref-
ormation, Henry VIII founded a new school, which
was afterwards given collegiate rank by Elizabeth and
it now ranks as one of the leading English public
schools. The scholars of Westminster still have cer-
tain rights and privileges within the abbey itself, such
as greeting the sovereign with acclamation, on behalf
of the English people, at the moment of his coronation.
From its earliest days Westminster has witnessed the
coronations of almost all the English sovereigns and
their consorts, commencing with Harold, the sue-
though many of them good work in themselves, are
completely out of harmony with their surroundings.
The extreme length of the abbev, including Henrv
VII's Chapel, is .511 ft.; the width of the nave and
aisles 79 ft.; and the height to the vaulting 102 ft.,
which is unusually lofty for an English church. Ex-
teriorly, the want of a central tower detracts some-
what from the general effect, and the eighteenth cen-
tury western towers are poor compared with the rest of
the building, but the grace and beauty of the interior,
in spite of the incongruous tombs and monuments, are
surpassed by few other Gothic churches in the world.
Much judicious restoration of the fabric has been suc-
cessfully carried out in recent years. Apart from the
immediate monastic precincts, the abbey domains
were very extensive, comprising numerous manors
and other endowments, but most of these have now
passed into other hands. Tlie revenues of the abbey
CiiiiKiHy W>(>mt7iiA/tcT-irii.ti.v pi
D Abbey from an Old Print
cesaor of Edward the Confessor, and William the
Conqueror, in 1066. There are two coronation
chairs. The first, which stands in St. Edward's
Chapel against the back of the high altar screen, con-
tains the stone on which the Scottish kings had for-
merly been crowned. This stone, according to legend,
is supposed to have been the identical one on which
Jacob rested his head at Bethel, and to have been
taken thence to Eg^pt and then through Spain to Ire-
land, about 700 B. c, where it stood upon the sacred
Hill of Tara, and it is said to have been removed
thence to Scone in Scotland, in .3.30 B. c, by Fergus,
the founder of the Scottish monarchy. But whatever
its origin may have been, Edward I in 1297 brought
it to Westminster and on it every sovereign of Eng-
land since Edward II ha-s been crowned, excepting
only Edward V. The other chair, the queen's, which
now stands in Henry VII's Chapel, was made for
Marj-, the wife of William III, who was crowned with
him in 16S9. Besides being the scene of their corona-
tions, Westminster is also the burial-place of many
English sovereigns and their consorts, e. g. Henry III,
Edward I, Edward III, Richard II, Henry V, and six
queens, whose tombs are in St. Edward's Chapel, and
Henry VII, Marj' Oueen of Scots, Elizabeth, and
Mary Tudor, and Margaret, the widow of Henrj' V,
who lie buried in Henrj- VII's Chapel. Numerous
other celebrities, poets, statesmen, w.arriors, etc.,
illustrious in English hi.story, have likewise been
buried within the abbey, so that it has become a na-
tional honour to be given a resting place there, though
unfortunately it cannot be .said that their tombs do
anything but mar the beauty of the building. The
pre-Reformation tombs accord with the medieval
architecture of the abbey, but those of later date,
at the time of the dis.solution amounted to £3471
(equivalent to about £3r),000 or $154,000 at the pres-
ent day), but though shorn of so many of its ancient
possessions, the Chapter of Westminster is still a very
wealthy collegiate body.
DuGDALE. Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1817-30): Leslie, Catholic Guide to Weslminsler Abbey (London, 1902); Henry Bradshaw Society, Missale Westmonasteriensis, ed. Lego (3 vol.f.. Ixindon, 1891-96); Idem, Cuslomari/ of SI. Peter's West- minster, cd. Thompson (London, 1904); Lethabt, Westminster Abbey and the Kings' Craftsmen (London, 1906); Bond, West- minster Abbey {London, 1909); Flete, Hist, of Westminster Abbey, ed. Robinson (Cambridge, 1909) ; Stanley, Historical Memorials of WestmiTister Abbey (London, 1868).
G. Cyprian Auston.
Westminster Cathedral. — As a national expres- sion of religious faith given by Roman Catholics to England since the Reformation, Westminster C.ithe- dral, London, stands pre-eminent. This distinction is due to vaslness of proportion, and original iiualities of design. The project of erecting a cat h(>dral for the metropolitan see originated in 1S6."), with the first archbi.shop of the restored hierarchy, but it was not until thirty years later that the building was com- menced by Cardinal Vaughan from the design of the late John Francis Bentley. On the death of thearchi- tect, in 1902, the structure was practically complete, but the internal decoration had scarcely been at- tempted. The whole building covers .an .area of about 54,000 square feet ; the dominating factor of the scheme, apart from the campanile, being a spacious and uninterrupted nave, 60 feet wide, covered with domical vaulting.
In planning the n;ive, a system of supports was adopted not unlike th.at to be .seen in most Gothic cathednals, where huge, yet narrow, buttresses are
